Marbled Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever since I had a bite of this cookie at my sis-in-law's, it has been our favourite. A very light, airy and crunchy chocolate chip cookie though it can be made chewy if that is what you fancy. All we served it to, seems to prefer cookies to be crunchy instead of chewy as we don't like bits of biscuits stuck in the teeth.

Even though this is a slightly healthier version than most of the recipes out there, they are still detrimental to ones waistline !

Makes 30-34 cookies

Ingredients
125 gm butter
40 gm brown sugar
70 gm sugar
1 egg
½ tsp homemade vanilla extract

120 gm chocolate chips

190 gm plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder



Method
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla essence. Beat well.

2. Add flour and mix to a soft dough. Stir in 3/4 of the choc chips.

3. Melt remaining choc chips in the microwave. Pour into the dough and stir briefly to give a marbled effect. (Do not overstir or you won't get the marbled effect).

4. Place rounded tablespoonful onto lined tray leaving a spacing of at least 1" for it to expand.

5. Bake at 190C for 10-12 minutes.

6. Reduce the heat to 120C and bake for a further 5-10 minutes to continue drying out the cookie center. (If you like your cookies chewy, skip this step).

7 . Remove and cool on a wire rack. Store in airtight containers.


Note :
1. If you have a sweet tooth increase the brown sugar and sugar to 100gm each .
2. Omit baking powder if using self raising flour.


Tip
1. I have always substituted the butter with a low fat margarine - no change in the texture but less fattening.

2. I recently bought one of these scoops. Holds 1½ tablespoons. Scoop, squeeze and drop in one swift motion without the dough sticking to the scoop. A real time saver. My cookies are now more uniform in size and shape as well.


Recipe : Cathryn (adapted)